Virtual Eagle Kit

A Virtual Eagle Kit is a way to engage with your students remotely and teach about wildlife, ecosystems, and more. Here are some great eagle themed activities, lessons, and resources.

Lesson Plans:

Blogging Using Live Cams: Students will write informative texts to convey ideas while examining the life cycles of birds, their required habitats, and predator-prey relationships.

Graphing with Eagles: Students will chart food brought into the nest, create picture and bar graphs representing the data, and solve questions based on the graphed information.

Birds of Prey: Who Done it?: Students will analyze and interpret data using the Eagle Cam and pre-determined evidence to prove which bird of prey is stealing fish from a local pond.

                Teacher Slides; Student Slides

Videos:

• Duke Farms Eagle Cam: 24/7 live-cam from the Duke Farms eagle nest. Users can rewind up to 2 hours from the live stream.
• 2019 Eagle Banding: A short video summarizing the eaglet banding process.

Activities:

• Eagle Cam Observations Log: Fillable PDF form where participants can log observations and the feeding schedule in the nest.
• Eagle Cam Scavenger Hunt: An activity to complete during active nesting season. Students can check off activities as they happen.
• Bald Eagle Ecology Trivia Quiz: 10 questions on bald eagle ecology. Kahoot is a free, online, trivia platform.

Additional Resources:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ EagleTrax: Several eagles banded by the state were fitting with a tracker. EagleTrax allows users to track their location. E88, “Duke”, was banded at Duke Farms in May 2019.
• New Jersey Bald Eagle Project, 2019: Overview of the state bald eagle conservation project
• Bald Eagle E-Book: Written in 2016, this free e-book provides an overview of bald eagle conservation, and the nest at Duke Farms.
• Eagle Cam FAQs
• National Eagle Center
• Decorah Eagle Cam

Virtual Eagles Kits are Aligned to Multi-Disciplinary Standards

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

• Next Generation Science Standards Appendix A – Conceptual Shifts in The Next Generation Science Standards
• Next Generation Science Standards Appendix E – Progressions within The Next Generation Science Standards: Increasing Sophistication of Student Thinking for K-12
• Next Generation Science Standards Appendix G – Crosscutting Concepts
• Next Generation Science Standards Appendix H – Understanding the Scientific Enterprise: Nature of Science

New Jersey Department of Education Model Curriculum

The State of New Jersey Department of Education provides a framework for the development of a more detailed local curriculum.  The Model Curriculum is organized by grade level and by discipline.  Just in the science content area, the following grade level themes relate directly to the Duke Farms Virtual Eagle Kit. 

• Kindergarten – Unit 4 – Basic Needs of Living Things
• Grade 1 – Unit 2 – Characteristics of Living Things
• Grade 2 – Unit 1 -Relationships in Habitats
• Grade 3 – Unit 4 – Traits; Unit 5 - Continuing the Cycle; Unit 6 – Organisms and the Environment
• Grade 4 – Unit 3 – Structure and Function
• Grade 5 – Unit 3 – Energy and Matter in Ecosystems
• Grade 6 – Unit 1 – Growth and Development Reproduction of Organisms; Unit 2 – Matter and Energy in Organisms in Ecosystems
• Grade 7 – Unit 6 – Inheritance and Variation of Traits
• Grade 8 – Unit 2 – Selection and Adaptation

New Jersey Department of Education Student Learning Standards

The New Jersey Student Learning Standards include Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards, as well as nine K-12 standards for the following content areas: 21st Century Life and Careers, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Visual and Performing Arts, World Languages. The Duke Farms Virtual Eagle Kit’s multi-disciplinary nature provides a wide array of connections among and between these content areas.  Additionally, as the standards are reviewed each year, on a five - year cycle, important revisions are made. We are excited to know that NJ is the first in the United States to mandate Climate Change curriculum for K-12 instruction.

The requirement is indicated on the NJDOE website: Climate Change across all content areas, leveraging the passion students have shown for this critical issue and providing them opportunities to develop a deep understanding of the science behind the changes and to explore the solutions our world desperately needs.

For more ideas on implementing the Duke Farms Virtual Eagle Kit into your instructional plan, contact Kate Reilly, Manager of Education, Duke Farms at kreilly@dukefarms.org